PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in speech to PLO Central Council: "There is something that the Americans are telling us to stop - the salaries of the Martyrs and the Martyrs' families. Of course we categorically reject this. We will not under any circumstances allow anyone to harm the families of the prisoners, the wounded, and the Martyrs. They are our children and they are our families. They honor us, and we will continue to pay them before the living."

Abbas made this statement in response to the American demand that the PA stop paying salaries to imprisoned terrorists and the families of terrorists.